The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-08-27

| mdu-dS Gno IacCS OF science, or as the
demonstrations and axioms of mathe-
matics 4 certainly should not be stand
ing to-day in Christian pulpit. 1 do
believe that nothing in mans knowl-
edge rests upon more secure founda-
tion-upon one more absolutely incap-
able of being disturbed, than religion.
Why? Because it rests upon the foun-
dation of the souls deepest experiences.
Below these it is impossible to go. If
here is not reality, then indeed
1.-THE pillar'd armament is rottenness,
And earth's base built on stubble."
For even the validity of our knowl-
edge Of the outward world depends
upon the truthfulness of the world
within.
You say, agriculture you know
about, for that has to do with tangi-
BILE things; and science like geology
you can be sure Of, for that deals with
hard facts. But do you really think
that stone is any more hard fact
than is love or hope? Are you any
more sure that the stone is out there,
than you are that you love your child
or your friend? 1 think not.
Are you any more certain, when you
plant your corn in the spring, that you
will get harvest in the fall; or when
you go to bed at night tired from your
toll, to rest for the next day, are you
any more sure that there will be any
next day, than you are that justice is
better than injustice, and truth than
falsehood? think not.
AS regards any object of external
nature, as flower or tree,-are you
any more sure that it really exists, as
to your senses it seems to, than you
are that over the tree and over all else
you see, and over your own life, there
is Power higher than the tree, and
higher than yourself, from which, some
how, the tree and yourself came,-a
Power and Wisdom that can be trusted
which you have learned by all the
experience Of your life can be trusted?
think not.
Men talk strangely. sometimes, about
the physical world-the world of ex-
ternal nature-being certain, and the
internal world of the mind and the
spirit, being uncertain,-a as if the dis
tant could be more certain than the
near-as if knowledge of England,
France, Germany, Europe foreign,
faI-away lands-could be more reliable
than knowledge of our own country
wherein we live. For, do we not know,
the things Of external nature trees,
grass, houses, hills, other persons, ami
mails, skie5-are really our souls for
eign lands, the lands which the mind
reaches by journeying away to dis
tance2 The OtDn country of us all, the
land in which we habitually dwell, is
the internal world Of our own thoughts,
our own feeling, our own desires, aspi-
rations, hopes, fears, memories, long
ings, loves, imaginations, emotions.
Shall we say, that our knowledge of
this near, familiar land is uncertain,
untrustworthy? And to get knowledge
that we can rely ON we must travel
away from home, sailing out from port
of eye and ear, over oceans Of air and
mysterious spaces we do not under
stand, to the foreign land of objec-
tive things-physical, external nature
stone, tree, river, sky?
No, there is nothing so near to us as
ourselves. There is nothing we so i'm
mediately and certainly know as our
selves. Our deepest knowledge is ex-
perience, and not even that experience,
either, that comes to US from without,
indirectly and roundabout by way of
the senses, but deepest of all is that
immediate, internal experience, which
is of the mind, the heart, the conscience,
the moral and spiritual nature, upon
which true religion ever builds.
"The things which are seen are tenn
poral, but the things that are not seen
are eternal"
One of the striking things about the
preaching Of Jesus when he was on the
earth was his constant talk about what
he called 1.-THE kingdom of God" or
"the kingdom of heaven" He repre-
sented his constant desire, his great
aim, as being to establish that king
dom, to build it up among men. He
taught his disciples to pray, "Our Father
who art in heaven, hallowed be thy
name, thy kingdom come" He
pronounced blessings upon the humble
and lowly in spirit, and those who were
prosecuted for righteousness sake, say
ing, "Yours is the kingdom of heaven. I"
When men desired to know what that
kingdom was, he represented it as the
reign of truth and love, of peace and
goodwill, on the earth. And when
asked further about it, he said, "the
kingdom of heaven is within you"
Now, what did the ordinary hearers
of Jesus, those who saw only super
ficially, think about this talk I'm
doubtedly they thought it nonsense.
The Kingdom of heaven" to them was
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